In hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, physician's offices or other medical facilities, it is often necessary to dispense fluids, such as sterile water, glycene, sorbital, saline and other irrigating solutions or other fluids or medicines to patients. A conventional way to dispense a fluid is to suspend a supply of the fluid in a bag or bottle above the patient, connect a length of tubing to an outlet of the fluid supply, and deliver the fluid to the patient via the tubing. By suspending the fluid supply above the patient, the fluid can be delivered to the patient at a desired pressure.
In some cases, the delivery of such fluids in this manner occurs over a period of several hours. In some situations, it is desired to monitor the delivery of the fluid so that the delivery of fluid can be stopped before the fluid runs low or so that a new supply of the fluid can be provided to maintain an uninterrupted flow to the patient. In some situations, the patient may experience undesirable effects if a fluid being delivered runs low or even runs out before a nurse or other medical attendant detects the condition. These undesirable effects can include clotting, dehydration, improper medication dosage, and so on.
Fluid collection from patients includes similar concerns. Fluids, such as urine, are sometimes withdrawn from a patient via a tubing positioned in the patient's bladder and collected in a container into which the tubing drains. If a container collecting the fluid becomes full without being noticed, the fluid may cease to be eliminated and distention or infection in the patient may occur.
In many cases, monitoring of fluid delivery to or drainage from patient is performed by having a medical attendant check on the patient on a regular basis until the need to change the fluid is observed. This type of monitoring requirement may impose demands on the time and attention of the medical attendant. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a way to conveniently monitor fluid being delivered to or being collected from a patient.